Lot details
Registration No: N/A
Chassis No: A8
Mot Expiry: N/A

Continental Cars, to be known as Connaught, was founded in 1945 by two ex RAF flyers, Rodney Clark and Mike Oliver. Mike Oliver was a gifted engine tuner and their intention was to prepare and sell high performance cars, which they based on the standard Lee Francis 14hp chassis, but new cars were indeed scarce. Kenneth McAlpine, a wealthy amateur racer, bought the first L2 sports car and in time became their Patron.
The real success of Connaught was with its Formula cars which were superbly made and handled well and in 1955 at Syracuse, Tony Brooks beat a strong field to give Britain its first Grand Prix victory in more than thirty years. Unfortunately Connaught, who were always short of money, folded in 1957 and the assets were disposed.
Chassis number A8 was built during the winter of 1952/53 and the engine was fed by a Hilborn-Travers fuel injection system in place of the normal Amal carburettors and it is worth noting that A8 is one of only two 'A' Type Connaught's that were fuel injected. A8 was part of the Works team for the 1953 season and was the last of the 'A' series to be built on a 7 foot 1" wheelbase, as the two subsequent 'AL' series cars were longer at 7 foot 6".
A8 was used by the factory team in most of the major races of 1953 and principally driven by John Coombes, Stirling Moss and Prince Bira. The latter gained its best result in the 90 lap British Grand Prix at Silverstone that year when it came home in seventh place, the first British car and the first non-Italian car to finish, behind three Ferrari's and three Maserati's. Bira also drove A8 at Reims and was again leading the best of the rest when oil leaked out of the final drive and in the German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring he again had to retire when a valve rocker broke.
With engine sizes going up to 2 ½ litre the 'A' series cars became obsolete as far as Grand Prix racing was concerned, though there was still some Formula 2 activity and A8 was sold to Guy Jason-Henry who raced it at Goodwood and Snetterton. In 1954 it was taken back to the factory and sold to Mike Young who used it in a few national events. The following year, having aspirations to do the new Formula 1, he acquired a 2 ½ litre HWM-Alta engine selling the original Lea Francis engine, numbered C16, to the owner of a Lotus Ten.
In its new guise Young did many smaller events and in 1956 he took the car to South Africa but afterwards decided to give up racing and sold it. The new owner did very little with it but passed it on to a group of enthusiasts who owned an HWM single seater and bought it principally for the engine. The car, minus the engine, was sold to Phil Bowker and later Gerry Walton located the Lotus Mk Ten and retrieved the C16 engine enabling A8 to be returned to its 1953 configuration. Gerry competed regularly in historic events throughout the 1980's with the pair becoming a very familiar site on historic grids around Britain.
The previous owner, a significant private collector and historic racer, maintained this car, as he does with all his charges, in meticulous and immaculate race ready condition and sold it some two years ago. The present owner, also an historic racer of note and someone who prepares his cars to the same standard is unfortunately used to racing much later Grand Prix cars and very large engined sports cars. Although he has enjoyed his time with the car immensely, especially the pre-selector gearbox, he is simply finding that he does not have the time to give the Connaught the attention it deserves.
The car is in exceptional condition throughout, with the engine having just been fully rebuilt by Lenham Racing and this fine original Grand Prix car, with an impeccable provenance, would be an ideal mount for any aspiring historic racer.
It is an important British Historic Grand Prix car, which was driven by some of the most famous and successful drivers from the golden age of motor racing and was naturally accepted for the Monaco Historic races on the only occasion that an application was made.

THIS INFORMATION HAS BEEN WRITTEN BY GERRY WALTON WHO OWNED THIS GREAT CAR FOR MANY YEARS.
This car was one of the two cars fitted with fuel injection when the Works team ran them - the other car in question is AL10. They also similarly had the wings to the rear of the front wheels as original fitments and they were the only two cars so dressed.
After works car - Sold in 1954 to Mike Young for £1,500 who fitted a two and a half litre Alta engine which involved cutting out the front oil tank. Not successful as an F1 car and was trapped in Suez Canal for a time and when returned to UK the formula had changed! Young was a friend of John Heath and when he was killed, on the mille Miglia, he sold up. The original engine C16 was put into a Lotus 10.
It was acquired by Harvey Bailey, the Director of engineering at Rolls-Royce at Derby who, after removing large amounts of chicken manure, renewed everything required and deemed necessary. He sold the car in a sorry state to Bob Ashby & Jumbo Cheviers but I understand that it was Mickleson who paid the money. They bought the car for the two and a half litre Alta engine so they could install it in an HWM. The car was then bought by Phil Bowker, along with a Lotus 10 for the engine, and gearbox and I bought it in the late 60's with its correct engine but no gearbox.
A8 in my ownership - my intention was, and I succeeded, to restore the car to FII specification, which involved undoing all the work which had been done to install the Alta two and a half litre: tank and nose steering behind tank plus all bodywork in front of the driver. It was raced first in the correct shape in 1971 but the engine was not a success at first.
In the period 1971 to 1988 I entered it for 176 races and had:-
20 First places.
22 Second places.
19 Third places.
24 Fourth places.
Finished 53 Finishes outside the top four
Making a total of 138 finished out of 176 races.
It 'Did Not Start' 16 times - including at least three when I fell out with the VSCC and elected not to start - thus no fault of the car.
It 'Did Not Finish' 22 times - 2 duff fuel. 2 Mag. Failure. 2 fuel pump. 1 drive shaft. 1 crash in practice. 2 body came adrift aft!!
During my ownership I won with the VSCC:-
HWM Trophy, Phipps Trophy, Hill Climb Championship, 1980 Donington Historic Championship, 2nd Lloyds Scottish Championship, 1st Atlantic Computers Championship.
When money was up for grabs in Brands European GP Meeting (£1,000) start was for the 15 fastest cars. I was able to out qualify Amschel Rothschild in the BRM P25. ie was 11th fastest car overall.
In July 1988 I joined in with a multiple pile-up at Oulton Park - car was completely rebuilt including re-jigging the chassis - it was then squarer than when it was new (!). The work was completed in 1992 when I sold the car.